Several thousand people gathered against the far right on Thursday evening, June 27, at Place de la République in Paris, three days before the first round of the legislative elections in which the National Rally is the clear favorite.
Gatherings also brought together a few hundred people in Lille (around 300), Marseille (around 150) and Rennes (around 680), AFP journalists noted.
Concert and speeches
In Paris, speeches by personalities, activists and mini-concerts alternated during a festive event called by the media (Mediapart, Politis, Arrêt sur images…), unions (CFDT, CGT, Confederation peasant, FSU…) and numerous associations (Attac, Greenpeace, Abbé Pierre…).
Actress Corinne Masiero read elements of the New Popular Front program on stage before proclaiming, while the audience clapped their hands, the Italian refrain “Siamo tutti antifascisti”. Former minister Cécile Duflot, general director of Oxfam, also spoke, before the electronic music group Acid Arab launched the musical component.
Actress Judith Godrèche, comedian Guillaume Meurice and director Alice Diop are among the personalities called to speak at this event called “Libertés!”, in defense of the freedoms “to create, exist, love, express oneself, demonstrate, inform, believe”, according to the organizers.
“I am worried about what will happen on Sunday and July 7. This is not a demonstration that will change things, but we hope…”, one protester, Ambre Fouillade, an 18-year-old law student, told AFP.
“I come for anti-racism and for freedom of the press”, underlined Paul Mongault, 21 years old, railway worker, however aware that “it is also the younger generations who are making the RN rise”.
“No to the threat that the RN poses to democracy”
In Rennes, in the rally organized at midday at the call of the CGT, the CFDT, FO and Solidaires, Wilfried Lemaréchal, general secretary of the CFDT Île-et-Vilaine, came to “say no to the threat that the RN poses to democracy”. In Lille, the demonstrators, many of whom were employees in the health sector, called for “unity among employees, students, retirees and immigrants”.
“We have to keep hope to change what people experience on a daily basis. In my entourage there is an awareness of the danger with the RN. I have friends who were not going to vote and who are mobilizing “, assured Sophie Frochisse, 36 years old, employee undergoing retraining in the medico-social sector.
Numerous rallies and demonstrations against the far right have been held since the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
